Meet the Flippers

From Yahoo! via Money magazine, we have Retirement interrupted.

Such perfect afternoons are exactly what Steve, 61, and Carol, 60, had in mind when they retired to Florida from Virginia two years ago. But those days are rare. Instead, the Daimlers spend most of their time consumed with selling two investment properties they bought shortly after the move - holding open houses, distributing fliers, cold-calling realtors and catering to prospective buyers.

A more typical day: On a midweek afternoon, Carol got a call from a prospect who said he and his wife were just outside one of the houses and wanted to see the interior. The only hitch: The house is an hour's drive from where the Daimlers live. The caller said he'd wait, so Carol and Steve jumped in the car. But by the time they arrived, the phantom buyers had disappeared - the frantic trip was a bust.

To this day, the properties remain unsold, draining nearly $6,000 a month from the Daimlers' dwindling retirement kitty. The couple had thought the properties would help finance the lovely new life they planned to lead in Florida.

To supplement their retirement savings of $260,000, they figured they'd buy fixer-upper homes to renovate, then sell at a profit in the state's hot housing market. "We thought we'd make $100,000 without batting an eye," says Carol.

But when the housing bubble burst, so did their dreams of a real-estate funded retirement. The properties have been on the market for nine months without a serious offer, and the carrying costs are killer: The Daimlers pay more than $65,000 a year on their mortgages (including loans for their primary residence and a vacation house in North Carolina), plus tens of thousands more for property taxes, insurance and maintenance.

The couple are pulling out $15,000 a month from savings to cover their expenses, and they've already run through more than half of their nest egg. The irony: On paper they seem to be in great shape, with a net worth of $1.6 million.

Money is so tight that Carol has stopped filling prescriptions for her cholesterol medicine. Steve says he has no choice but to go back to work. "The financial pressure is too great," he says.

In the early 1990's they sold one of the houses and used the proceeds to build a vacation home in the Outer Banks. Current estimated value: $900,000.

Michael Cirino, a financial planner with Lincoln Financial Group in Jacksonville, Fla., urges the Daimlers to sell their beach house in the Outer Banks. Probable net: $650,000. But while Steve is open to the idea, Carol is reluctant. "I have an emotional attachment to that home," she says, "and I don't want to make any more fast decisions."

One thing hasn't changed: The Daimlers remain staunch believers in real estate. "If the financial pressure was off, we'd still look for opportunities to invest," says Steve. "For now, though, we just don't have the means to hang on."

They're in their 60's.

They thought they would make an "easy" $100,000.

They're bleeding $15,000 a month from their "dwindling retirement kitty".

They've run through half their "nest egg".

She prefers her vacation home to her cholesterol medicine. Looks like her heart is in the right place.

Their theoretical worth is $1.6M. It's theoretical because things ain't worth shit until you sell them.

They call them "investments". Now, I understand investments as something that produces increasing amounts of positive "free cash flow". However, what the fuck do I know? I probably need to drink the New Era Kool-Aid™.

However, they remain "staunch believers in real estate".

Hope springs eternal!